\n<\/p>\n
Georgia\u2019s road to its first game in the European soccer championship had been a long one, more than 30 years in the making. So when it finally arrived on Tuesday, no one wanted to miss out.<\/p>\n
In Germany, that excitement was evident among the thousands of fans who filled the streets on a rain-soaked day in Dortmund and then flowed like a red-and-white river into the stadium. In Tbilisi, thousands more braved the heat to gather in the city\u2019s parks and squares to watch their team play Turkey. More pressed into one of the main stadiums in the capital, where giant video screens had been erected.<\/p>\n
And then there was the man on the scooter.<\/p>\n
He had surprised Georgia\u2019s national team<\/a> at its German training base on Saturday, puttering to a stop after a 12-day journey that had covered more than 4,000 kilometers (about 2,500 miles). Ushered onto the field by team officials before a training session, the man spoke briefly to the players and then unzipped his large blue backpack to reveal its precious cargo: a huge Georgian flag covered with messages<\/a> of support from well-wishers back home.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cPeople in Georgia only talk about the football and the achievement we accomplished, and this energy is crazy,\u201d the Georgia captain, Guram Kashia, said on the eve of the match.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Georgia is the lowest-ranked team at Euro 2024, but that reality has done little to dim its pride. In more than three decades as an independent nation, it had never before qualified for a major international tournament.<\/p>\n Now that the moment has arrived, though, all of the positivity around the team contrasts sharply with a political crisis that has divided the country. That split broke into the open only days after the team qualified for the Euros in March, when the governing party began an effort to push a piece of legislation that has drawn strong opposition. The government presented the bill as an effort to make foreign funding of the country\u2019s nongovernmental groups and media organizations more transparent. Opponents denounced it as a stealthy effort to convert Georgia into a pro-Russian state<\/a>.<\/p>\n The turmoil that followed led to some of the biggest protests in the country\u2019s history, and raised what was for many a vital national question: Should Georgia, a former Soviet republic, be looking to Russia for its future, or to Europe?<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a very difficult feeling to explain,\u201d said Andro Babuadze, 20, a student who arrived in Dortmund from Tbilisi on Tuesday morning. More than anything, he said, the event offered a stage for a small nation like Georgia to be seen. \u201cIt just feels like you\u2019re being recognized because these are the elite countries of football in the world. Europe is a very united place. And this is what we are striving for as a country, too.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Some analysts and lawmakers said that Georgia\u2019s qualification to the Euros in March \u2014 a night that set off emotional celebrations across the country \u2014 created a convenient opportunity for the government to push the bill.<\/p>\n \u201cThey decided to seize the moment, thinking, if not now, then when?\u201d said Armaz Akhvlediani, an independent lawmaker in the Georgian Parliament.<\/p>\n The unity did not last. As the tournament grew closer, so did the ferocity of the protests in Tbilisi and the crackdowns by government forces. It was, said Mr. Babuadze, \u201ca bit scary and heartbreaking at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n The bill won final approval in May<\/a>, but the fight it started appears far from over. More than 60 percent of Georgians are in favor of their country joining NATO and the European Union, according<\/a> to polls<\/a>. To them, Georgia\u2019s debut at a major international soccer tournament serves as the most visible proof to date that their country is part of Europe.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n That exposure has also made it uncomfortable at times for the players as they have been unable to avoid being drawn into the fray. Some have offered full support to opponents of the government\u2019s bill. Others have been criticized for not doing the same.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n When the team\u2019s biggest star, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, issued a neutral statement<\/a> supporting neither side, he angered some of the opposition\u2019s most strident activists. Other players have been more outspoken. One, forward Budu Zivzivadze, condemned the beatings of protesters and said in an interview<\/a> with a local YouTube channel that \u201cRussia is an enemy state not only for us, but for almost everyone.\u201d He later asked the channel to remove that section from his interview but in May wrote on social media<\/a> that he opposed \u201ceverything that takes Georgia to Russia.\u201d<\/p>\n